Avocado toast

[plonq]

atara made us avocado toast for brunch today - one of the luxuries we afford ourselves when they are in season and (comparatively) inexpensive. We usually don't have it with a fried egg on top; that kind of decadence is reserved for weekends and holidays.



There is an Australian millionaire who made a stir when he suggested that millennials cannot afford to buy houses because they squander their money on avocado toast and lattes. I understand the point he is trying to make, but I believe he is conflating cause and effect.

I think that millennials are spending money on luxuries like avocado toast, electronics, and fancy coffees because they've resigned themselves to the fact that they are unlikely to ever own a house in the current market unless they inherit one.

Our house is comparatively cheap compared to the same house in other markets, but even so its value has quadrupled since I bought it back in '95. My wages - heck, our wages combined - are not quadruple what I was earning back then. The truth is that the price of a home in many of the prime markets is rapidly outpacing the growth in wages in those same areas.

To his defense, this guy only started with an inheritance of a few tens of thousands, versus the millions inherited by many millionaires that live in that kind of a bubble. As such, he is largely self-made and has some room to be preachy about it.

Also, there is a good point hiding in his hubris.

If you can afford to regularly treat yourself, you can afford to treat yourself about 30% less and put some of that aside. It may never amount to a house, but emergency savings can be a life saver.

I guess if it came down to pointing fingers on the matter, I'd have to put much of the blame on the parents who never taught their kids how to save. My parents did their part, even if it took nearly 30 years for the lesson to properly sink in.

Comments

[ristin]

That millionaire was a coalition politician, weren't they? An out of touch rich person is one thing, an out of touch rich person basing political policy on their ignorance is another.

Either way I think you are giving them way too much credit since it seems the typical millenial is treating themselves if they can eat anything that isn't instant ramen noodles.

Your point about "they think a house is not an option so why not treat themselves" is a good one, I think. Though to me it is other luxuries that I would point to, like people who seem to have a new smartphone every month and a collection of the latest gaming consoles, and so on.

All of this being a weird way to say "yeah, I agree". ^_^

[aurifer]

A point I like to bring up is that Millenials somehow think Mr. Noodle is 'cheap'. The cheapest ones I've found are maybe 25c for a 100g package. I've gotten over 300g of flour for that price (well, thirty times that amount for thirty times that price), and tortillas aren't that hard to make.

(Bottom line, what we call 'Millenials' today were called 'kids these days' forty years ago, and all along have been the poorer ones who didn't learn important skills like financing and cooking.)